DEAR BELOVED SISTER

This address is from my humble and insufficient pen, lined by my injured inner being and it is nothing but a cry from someone warning and cautioning you. They are but words which I can only hope to find your ears and by which the door of your heart may be reached and they find space, an entrance, acceptance, and then application. The words I write are from a heart full of sorrow and pain at the sorry condition of so many Muslim women today.

We see the woman who, dressed in clothes that is covering yet revealing, comes out to display her charms and seduces the slaves of Allah with the filthiest of weapons – the weapon of enticement and allurement that she has learned of the ways and means of seduction. For you find this seduction in the home, in the street, in speech and in movement. It is really a serious matter that is disgraceful and that dismembers the heart with grief when we live in a reality where so many Muslim women are divested of ‘hayaa’. The Deen and the Qur’an are forgotten, practices and morals are disavowed...and there is no power except from Allah.

It is for this, my Muslim sister, that when the enemies of Islam saw the position of the Muslim woman and the powerful influence she had amongst those with whom she lives as the teacher and the developer of the coming generations and due to her would the upbringing be either solid or corrupted; they turned their focus on you. They focus on you, the Muslim woman, to destroy your morals and take away your Deen and hayaa’ toward which you were naturally disposed and which you were commanded to stick to, until the morals of your sons: the pillars of the ummah get corrupted. If this pillar is made defective or is destroyed and the nature of the ummah is weakened, then what will become of its future? This is exactly what the enemies of Allah want.

My beloved sister, what your enemy wants of you is indeed expensive. They want to ruin your Deen, your moral character, your virtue, and your hayaa’ in which you derive pride and honour. They want you to be the reprehensible, resented, and despicable of the society, as is the condition of their womenfolk. They clamour for the throwing off of the Hijab and to nudity and exposure and they say to you:

Tear to pieces your covering, O daughter of Islam.

Tear it up and burn it without hesitation. For truly, it is a sham protector.

Do you know how they are able to infiltrate and influence you through means that are enticing and outwardly innocent but internally filthy? It is through the method of giving honey-covered poison presented through glittering and captivating addresses. Terms like move with the times, civilization and modernization are their sayings. It is done through lowly means. Will you turn to Allah my sister? Will you not look to your Rabb and throw the plots of the enemies back on their throats and reject their concepts and misleading anthems? Will you say with the strength and honour of a Muslim I do accept the order of Allah and His Prophet?

Every Muslim woman must say to the enemies of Allah what At-Taymuriyyah said:

With a hand of decency, I defend the honour of my Hijab. And by modesty I have risen above my contemporaries. And by brilliant and gifted thought and critical disposition have my good manners been perfected. Nothing has harmed me of my culture and good learning. Except I am best of those wise. Nothing has prevented us from rising. Except letting down the head cover from our locks and the covering of our faces.

My sister, where is that young woman upon whom you see hayaa’ written all over to the point where it practically speaks to you because of her outer appearance, her bashfulness, and covering where she is on guard not to reveal even a finger fearing to reveal any part of her body or the tone of her skin or any of her physical charms? If you were to see her, you would consider her like a black crow for her decorum and striving to maintain the Hijab.

The image of this modest young lady is apparently different and contrary to the one who is made-up and leaves her home, school, or workplace while at the height of adornment and apex beautification. She wears enticing clothing and nothing over it. She goes out adorned with gold jewellery and displays it up and forearms or on her hands which are also decorated with henna or with a manicure that she contently shows to the people around her, not thinking that Allah is watching her. What an obvious contrast between these two women!

My precious sister! Don’t follow the vile callers to corruption who boast of vices...‘those who are bereft of the garment of hayaa’. By Allah, what makes the heart weep and serves the grieved soul is to see a Muslim woman...when she sees her counterparts wearing tight, short and thin clothing, she wears it and emulate them. If she sees them wearing tight, tempting pants and revealing dresses, sometimes even showing their private parts, thighs, and buttocks; she parrots them! She neither upholds the ruling of the Sharii ‘ah in her clothing nor does she see what Allah has deemed acceptable for her of it. Instead, she goes along with their so-called ‘modernization’ and has no desire to divert from procession of civilization and development and sees any digression as regression and backward repression though the source of regression, backwardness, guilelessness, and self-defeatism is actually in her portrayal and concepts.

My sister, I am astounded by the way Muslim sister who wears tight and see-through clothing and who appears before strange men while she knows the threat of the prophet: There are two types of people in Hellfire; among them are the women who are clothed yet naked, astray, tempting and whose hair is piled upon their heads like the humps of camels. They will neither enter Jannah nor even smell its fragrance (Muslim).

Astonished am I with the one who knows that the voice of a woman is to be covered (‘awrah) unless there is necessity but nevertheless she raises her voice without hayaa’. She talks with her friends or whoever is with her as though they are in her house paying no heed to the presence of men. Some even engage in Qur’aanic competitions in the presence of strange men while Allah the Exalted states:

“And do not be too soft in speech lest be in whose heart is a disease (of evil desire for adultery) should be moved with desire.” (Q33:32)

I am amazed with the one who knows the ruling regarding wearing perfume outside her home or school, especially when she puts it on and passes by strange men and they smell her scent through the air. She puts upon herself the statement of the prophet: “Verily, the woman who is perfumed and passes by men and they smell her scent is called Zaaniyah (adulteress) in the heavens” [Ahmad], but she cares not.

I am really bewildered when I see my sister who knows the ruling regarding high heels (many scholars view them as impermissible to wear due to the deception, physical harm, tendency to cause a seductive gait and drawing undue attention) and that wearing them is a form of trickery and seduction of the one who sees her and thinks she is tall while she is not. She knows that they are also unhealthy and harmful physically, socially, and morally gaudy, flashing, and eye-catching shoes that are sure to turn heads and bring on Fitnah.

I am fazed by my sisters who hear the call to what is right and nevertheless distance themselves from the truth out of pursuing their desires and the diseases of baser self. Can you guarantee, my sister, your lifetime even for a moment? What would happen if perhaps Allah would not permit you another day and you are upon the sinfulness which you currently commit? Can you imagine how you would meet your Rabb?

Think about it, my sister, and know that the pleasures of this worldly life are but transient and no person will leave behind anything but their deeds. If they were righteousness, then there is only the best reward...if they were otherwise, then woe to them for what they may meet.

My lovely sister, safeguard your complete Islamic Hijab of beautification and proceed to the obedience of your Rabb. Tear apart and burn every shameless and vile page, novel or sentence that calls for release from values, Deen, and hayaa’ to depravity, shame, corruption, and scandal. Close your ears to the bleating of the West, their noisemaking, and other clamouring and instead open your ears and heart to the call of goodness and faith. Throw back plots of your enemies upon their necks by holding firm to the Book of your Lord and Sunnah of your Prophet and cause them to suffocate in vexation and exasperation at your upsetting them. Do it, my beloved sister, for it is the act of the Muslim woman who is proud of her Deen.